Ok, weird title I know... But for any of you who get the reference, you're awesome.
Let me explain. It's a quote from the 1996 Christopher Guest classic, "Waiting for Guffman". Today I went to a follow up swallow study and the speech and swallow therapist bore an uncanny resemblance to Corky St. Clair, Guest's character in the film who has that quote. I kept waiting for the therapist to start spewing lines from the movie.
Anyway, humor aside, my swallow study went well. I have no issues with properly blocking my lungs or my nasal passages when swallowing. The base of my tongue (half controlled by the nerve/muscle I had removed) does not quite raise as much as it should, which is why I have such difficulty eating still. When I swallow, I leave residue behind. It takes me 2-3 swallows for a normal person's 1. It also means I can't quite reach the food that gets stuck to the roof of my mouth. The therapist gave me some suggestions for exercises to do to strengthen the remaining tongue muscles.
Even so, I was quite bothered by the therapist's and radiologist's attitudes. When I complained about how long it took me to eat or how I hated the way my speech had become, their response was that it was normal for someone having undergone my treatment and I should be thankful for being in as good of shape as I was. I replied that it wasn't normal for your average 25-year-old. Their response was that I wasn't a "normal" 25-year-old. *sigh*. That shouldn't matter.
Well it's getting close to bed time. I have to get up early tomorrow for some more doctor check-ups. Good night.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Ha! I just posted on the HE forum about doctors handing out the "normals". They don't get it. To them we're all patient charts and statistics. They are programmed to think that way.
ReplyDeleteThey don't care what I lost personally because I'm still "within normal levels". I lost unusually large biceps and a six-pack, but that's not normal, so gaining 6 pounds and being weaker than my former athletic self fits their stats better. As a physicist/engineer, I have a resume more impressive than similar professionals twice my age, but that's not normal. So a little brain damage making me a little dumber makes me fit better into the "normal" textbook stats.
The doc who said to me, "All I can offer you is my empathy..." didn't give me his cell phone number to call in the middle of the night when I'm crying. So somewhat empty, but I guess it makes him feel better he said something nice.
So don't take the "normals" personally wether they're saying you are or you aren't. We're all different, so what is normal anyway?